logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2025
12m 2s

Lisztomania!

The Retrospectors
About this episode
he German poet and journalist Heinrich Heine coined the term “Lisztomania” on 25th April 1844 to describe the phenomenon of frenzied fandom in Europe where women would physically assault Franz Liszt by tearing his clothes, fighting over broken piano strings and locks of his shoulder-length hair. Heine said there was something about Liszt’s performances that ... Show More
Up next
Today
Unmasking New York's 'Mad Bomber'
George Metesky’s campaign of terror as ‘the Mad Bomber of New York’ ended abruptly on 22nd January, 1957. Between 1940 and 1956, he had planted at least 32 bombs in public places, including theatres, railway stations, libraries, and landmarks such as Grand Central Terminal. Polic ... Show More
13m 6s
Yesterday
The Chastity Belt and the Frenchman
Henri Littière and his adulterous wife Suzanne thought they’d come up with a novel way to combat her philandering - by commissioning a custom-made chastity belt. But on 21st January, 1934, Littière was sentenced to three months in prison for cruelty to his spouse. It’s a strange ... Show More
11m 35s
Jan 20
Lalli and the Axe
According to Finnish legend, a peasant farmer named Lalli murdered the Christian missionary Bishop Henry on the ice of lake Köyliönjärvi on January 20, 1156, dispatching him with an axe blow to the head. It is fair to say things didn’t go terribly well for Lalli after that. He me ... Show More
12m 8s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2024
Nico: Songs They Never Play On the Radio by James Young
Author Will Hodgkinson and actress and director Caroline Catz join Andy and John to discuss James Young's Nico: Songs They Never Play On the Radio, first published in 1992. This is the story of Nico, former model, film actress, erstwhile singer with the Velvet Underground and dar ... Show More
1h 13m
Oct 2022
Music to Scream to - The Hammer Horror Soundtracks
Curse of the Werewolf, The Brides of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell – films from the height of Hammer Films’ prolific output in the late 1950s and 1960s. Many of the horrific music soundtracks, carefully calibrated to set the pulse racing, were composed by leadin ... Show More
29 m
Jul 2024
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart occupies a unique place in the history of culture, as his output of over 600 works defined the course of classical music, and remade the face of opera. Mozart’s compositions are staples of our cultural landscape, and his is a name which still, centuries later, sells out co ... Show More
57m 44s
Aug 2025
Amadeus (1984) | Ep. 119
Winner of eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, Miloš Forman's masterpiece tells the story of Mozart through the envious eyes of his rival Salieri. But how did a Czech director come to make a classic Viennese tale? And what's the real story behind "too many notes"?Join Joh ... Show More
2h 29m
Apr 2025
Leif Ove Andsnes on Liszt's Via Crucis
In this episode, Gramophone's Editor Martin Cullingford talks to pianist Leif Ove Andsnes about his new recording on Sony Classical of the extraordinary work Via Crucis by Franz Liszt, the composer's deeply spiritual meditations on the Stations of the Cross, released just before ... Show More
37m 38s
Jan 2025
527. Beethoven: Napoleon and the Music of War LIVE at the Royal Albert Hall
Ludwig Van Beethoven, like his precursor and possible acquaintance Mozart, is one of the most famous figures in Western musical history. With his wild hair and furrowed brow, his was a genius marked not by flamboyance and flare, but dark, bombastic gravity. Like Mozart, though, h ... Show More
1h 6m
Aug 2025
Molière: Satire, Scandal & the Stage
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Professor Jan Clarke to explore the life, legend, and legacy of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin — better known as Molière. From his audacious rejection of bourgeois expectations to his controversial plays that rattled the Catholic Church and deligh ... Show More
49m 38s
Jun 2024
Kristian Nairn - Spektrum 068
Episode 68 of Spektrum is here, and this month Kristian Nairn has music from the likes of Yotto, Max Freegrant, Darren Tate, Sebastian Sellares, Estiva, and more. 01. Secretly Famous - Try Go Upload02. Das Pharaoh - Watt is Right (Sebastian Sellares Remix)03. Redspace & ISMAIL.M ... Show More
59m 52s
Jan 2024
Kristian Nairn - Spektrum 064
Every month, Kristian Nairn, aka Hodor from HBO’s Game Of Thrones, brings you his own personal selection of the best house, tech and progressive around. As well as providing candid insight into the life of a leading actor, Kristian shines the spotlight on some of his favourite ar ... Show More
59m 20s
Jul 2024
Vivaldi’s Greatest Protegé
<p>In early 18th century Venice, the Ospedale della Pietà took in abandoned baby girls through a tiny gap in the wall.&nbsp; In addition to ensuring the girls’ survival, the orphanage employed one of the world’s greatest ever composers - Antonio Vivaldi - to train the girls in mu ... Show More
32m 45s